The Official K-12 Public School Blog from the Utah State Board of Education and Utah State Office of Education

Utah Principals of the Year

By Mark Peterson, on January 16th, 2013

Nebo, Canyons and Washington School District Educators Named
Utah Principals of the Year

SALT LAKE CITY – The principals of Spanish Fork High School and Union Middle School, along with the assistant principal of Enterprise High School were named 2012-13 Utah Secondary Principals of the Year by the Utah Association of Secondary School Principals in a ceremony in Salt Lake City.

Spanish Fork High Principal Dave McKee, Union Middle School Principal Mary Anderson, and Enterprise High School Assistant Principal Royd Darrington will represent in the MetLife Principal of the Year competition.

McKee began his career as a Japanese, sports medicine and physical education teacher at Payson High School in 1984. He was named assistant principal at Spanish Fork High in 2003 and become principal there in 2005. During his tenure at Spanish Fork, he has pushed the use of technology at the school.

“Mr. McKee is a compassionate dedicated principal who creates a welcoming learning environment for all students, supports teachers as they advance in practice and professionalism and makes Spanish Fork High a place of learning and growth,” said English teacher Deon Yound.

Anderson began her career at Alta High School, where she also coached gymnastics, in 1978. She served as an administrative intern at Alta in 1995 and later become assistant principal at Hillcrest High School and then at Riverton High School. She was appointed principal at Union Middle in 2005.

Anderson made use of Tier 2 reading intervention programs for students at Union. “Mary deftly employs the use of data to inform her decisions,” said Hollie Pettersson, secondary director of evidence-based learning. “She collects, plots, analyzes and reviews multiple data sets to inform her decision and to support effect program solving on the part of her building leadership team and the professional learning communities at her school.”

Darrington began his career as a teacher at Parowan High in 1999 before moving to Pine View Middle School. He was named assistant principal at Enterprise High in 2003. At Enterprise he helped implement the five-by-five block schedule and help establish a professional learning community culture there.

“His work ethic is unmatched,” said Pine View Middle School Assistant Principal Dana McConnell. “He is prompt, professional and goes far beyond expectations of his assignment.

All three Utah nominees will compete in the National Principal of the Year competition sponsored by VIRCO and the National Association of Secondary School Principals.www.schools.utah.gov